No Spoiler Alerts, Or At Least None That You Haven’t Already Gotten Elsewhere
So, as you surely know by now Babygirl is about a very in-control CEO played by Nicole Kidman who fulfills a lifelong desire for submissive sex with an intern. Sex is the single area of her life where Romy (Kidman’s CEO) not only doesn’t want control, but wants to be controlled. Whether you will find Babygirl compelling turns on whether you find that story line compelling - meaning, the very idea that somebody otherwise wholly in charge secretly craves the very opposite sexually.
I did not find it compelling, and neither did the very culturally-astute, smart girlfriend I saw the film with.
It’s not a new idea for anyone who watched Billions (which is nearly everybody, right)? And it’s not made new, at least not in this film by the fact that it’s a female protagonist rather than a male.
The reason I’m boiling it down to that basic plot line is that the film doesn’t offer a whole lot else. I am flummoxed by the good reviews. Maybe this is Kidman’s role of a lifetime and maybe Babygirl is the best acting of her career, but my fellow theater-goer and I never saw her as Romy. We only saw her as Nicole Kidman. It’s true that we have never seen Nicole Kidman like this. But guess what? Kim Basinger did it better and hotter, and that’s what came to mind while watching Nicole Kidman.
“Boy, this isn’t as good as 91/2 Weeks,” I whispered over to my friend.
“Or Body Heat,” she whispered back.
“Or The Last Seduction,” I said, under my breath again.
“Or the one with the rabbit. Which one was that?” She replied.
“Fatal Attraction,” I said, very quietly.
And then the eighty-something-year-old woman who was sitting in front of us turned around to stare me down. (That was even though, moments earlier and during what might otherwise have been a powerful moment, she had yelled in a very loud voice to the man sitting right next to her “That’s called fisting,” drawing widespread laughter from the room. (We were seeing Babygirl at the Lake Worth 8, a rundown theater in South Florida situated near numerous gated communities.))
The main problem with the film as a thriller is that it never feels like there is as much at stake for Kidman (I mean Romy) as there should be because the film doesn’t do an effective job of heightening the tension on what she might lose: her husband, her career.
There are a lot of beautiful scenes of Kidman in various states of being beautiful though. She is beautifully, tastefully, sumptuously dressed in quiet luxury as a CEO. She is beautiful from behind, naked, as she walks out of the bedroom where she just made love to - but did not have an orgasm with - her husband (played weakly by Antonio Banderas in a performance not worth dwelling on). She is beautiful drinking milk (and also lapping it up). She is beautiful when she is having an orgasm (finally, with the intern - more on him below). And that’s not nothing. All that beauty. But it doesn’t make for a movie in and of itself, per se.
As unconvinced as I was by Kidman’s portrayal of Romy, I did believe in Harris Dickinson’s character, Samuel. And I felt moved by the arc that Samuel travels in the film. (Though it’s difficult to call him a lead because it really is Kidman’s movie — she‘s in nearly every scene.) Dickinson plays the role of the sensitive, empathic, intuitive intern Samuel who — sensing what Kidman’s character needs — learns, over the course of the film, how to be a sexual dom. His transformation and then, finally, his ownership of his Dom-ness role becomes clear in the last scene we see of him.
The only scene that fully showcases Samuel, though, and the most poignant one of the film, depicts him dancing for Kidman in their hotel room to the music of George Michael’s Father Figure. It comes after their first full sex session, during which she had the first orgasm of her life from sex with another person (earlier we see her orgasm from masturbating to porn). This dance is his version of a victory lap. It feels like an intimate and genuine moment in a film that should contain many but doesn’t.
In a year in which we have seen some pretty sexy dancing scenes from male leads — from Barry Keoghan in Saltburn and Daryl MacCormack in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande — Dickinson’s was the most moving, and my favorite.
See Babygirl because Nicole Kidman is beautiful, or to be part of the cultural conversation, or because you’re a connoisseur of erotic thrillers and want to be comprehensive. See it to to have your own view on what all the fuss is about.
Or see it because you’re looking for a Father Figure. Or wondering whether you should be. But not for you — looking for a friend. In Babygirl, Dickinson will give you what you need.
If you want to read about more sexy films, scroll down for a link to Christian Pan’s regular column PrimeCrush & Chill: Steamy Films Worth a Rewatch.
If you want to add some kink to your life, scroll down for a link to Ralph Greco’s six part column Sighs & Moans.
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